Adobe recently announced they are to bring out
online versions of some of their desktop software suite, including Photoshop, within the
next 6 months. The first place we can get a glimpse of these offerings is on the popular
photo and video sharing site Photobucket. Since last month, pro users of Photobucket have been
able to access an Adobe online video editing tool called
Adobe Remix. This will be opened up to all users of Photobucket sometime this
month.
With a Photobucket account, you can upload and share your photos and videos – and
blast them out to just about anywhere on the web, including MySpace, Facebook, Bebo,
eBay, Blogger. Founded in 2003, they claim to have 38 million registered users, over 17
million visitors per month, and serve out a whooping 3 billion media clips per day.
According to Alexa, they have just
recently overtaken Flickr in terms of traffic. Photobucket is free to use, but a pro
account gives you some extras – such as 5 gigs of space and unlimited bandwidth for just
$25 per year. And now, Adobe Remix is a pro account extra too…
Adobe Remix
The Adobe Remix feature in Photobucket is a flash application that was built with Flex and runs very smoothly. You can take
video clips and pictures that you have uploaded to your Photobucket account and drag them
onto the Remix time line, add captions, borders, transitions and effects. You can even
add an audio track to your movie, by choosing from a large selection of tracks provided
by Pump Audio. You can’t upload
your own music at the moment, but this may change in time.
The end result is a single movie that you can post on your blog, MySpace etc – or just
download for your own amusement. The only obvious feature that’s missing is sound
effects. Otherwise Adobe Remix is an excellent tool for manipulating video or photos. It
is a relatively simple application, but runs well and is very easy to use.
Online Photoshop coming soon…
Looking forward, it’s going to be very interesting to see what Adobe brings out this
year. The company plans to announce more partnerships soon and these free services will
probably be driven by advertising. What’s more, they will be used as promotional tools –
to lure users to upgrade to Adobe’s desktop suites. If Remix is a taste of what’s to come
from Adobe, then the future looks bright for those who don’t currently have access to
their products.
